Leading brokers in emissions spot trading within the voluntary carbon credit market.
With the festive season just around the corner, here at Carbon Expert we thought it only right to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. We wish you all the best for the festive period and hope that the Christmas period brings all the happiness and pleasure it should.
A couple of things to note in terms of the carbon market for all you budding investors!
Carbon prices gave up gains on speculation Europe’s debt crisis will depress demand even as the world’s largest polluters back away from positions that have stymied global climate talks.
China, the world’s biggest emitter, and India agreed at the climate summit that ended yesterday in Durban, South Africa, to take part in talks starting next year that would bind them for the first time to emission reductions. The U.S., the second- biggest emitter, also signed on to plan led by Europe to reach a global agreement by 2015 to restrict greenhouse gases linked to climate change by 2020.
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Carbon Expert provides access for our clients to the carbon credit trading market in an innovative and forward thinking way, offering OTC trading of VERs via its network of professional carbon brokers.
Selection of news stories from around the world.
The Carbon Footprint specifically counts how much greenhouse you expel, minus how much you take back in, in your daily life. Here's a few tips.
General
At the Office
Transportation
Source: green.wikia.com
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform.
Carbon Expert provides access for our clients to the carbon credit trading market in an innovative and forward thinking way, offering OTC trading of VERs via its network of professional carbon brokers.
We have a commitment to the alternative green market sector, and are a leading international broker of carbon credits. In a market now worth approximately US$144 billion, the carbon market is set to eclipse all preceding markets. Carbon is having a major impact on energy markets and prices. Its effects are impacting upon energy producers, utilities and increasing numbers of manufacturers.
For Carbon Trading News Stories from around the world
Medical experts have urged policy makers to take concrete steps to tackle climate change, warning that failure to do so poses an immediate, grave and escalating threat to the health and security of billions of people around the globe.
More than 100 medical and military professionals, including Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of council at the British Medical Association and Lord Michael Jay, chairman of medical relief charity Merlin, yesterday backed a statement declaring climate change the greatest current threat to public health.
The statement outlines how rising temperatures and weather instability will lead to more frequent and extreme weather events, loss of habitat and habitation, water and food shortages, the spread of diseases, ecosystem collapse, and threats to livelihood, potentially triggering mass migration and conflict within and between countries.
It also warns that humanitarian crises will impact on military resources and that the human and economic cost of climate impacts "will be enormous".
It urges the EU to urgently adopt a 30 per cent CO2 greenhouse gas reduction target for 2020 and for the United Nations to commit to restricting the global temperature rise to 2°C as agreed at the Copenhagen and Cancun Summits.
Opening the meeting, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne urged national governments to limit the impact of climate change to deliver "a cleaner, healthier, safer future".
Professor Hugh Montgomery, director of the UCL Institute for Human Health and Performance urged politicians to tackle the tangible risks posed by global warming.
"It is not enough for politicians to deal with climate change as some abstract academic concept," he said.
"The price of complacency will be paid in human lives and suffering, and all will be affected. Tackling climate change can avoid this, while related lifestyle changes independently produce significant health benefits. It is time we saw true leadership from those who would profess to take such a role."
Other signatories included Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, David Kidney, the former MP who is now head of policy at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, and the leaders of Norway and Sweden's Medical Associations.
The statement was released as startling new research predicted sea levels are likely to rise by 75 centimetres by 2100 as a result of climate change.
Aslak Grinsted, researcher at the Centre for Ice and Climate, the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, yesterday published a set of projected changes in sea level for the next 500 years.
The two most realistic scenarios, calculated based on greenhouse gas emissions and pollution levels stabilising in the coming decades, predicts sea levels will still rise by about 75cm by 2100 and two metres by the year 2500.
The most pessimistic scenario, where emissions continue to increase, predicts sea levels could rise 1.1 metres by 2100 and 5.5 metres by 2500.
Even in the most optimistic scenario, requiring extremely dramatic climate change goals, major technological advances and strong international cooperation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the sea would continue to rise by around 60cm by 2100 and 1.8 metres by 2500.
Grinsted said the changes would occur because ice caps and sea levels react slowly to changes in emissions.
"Even if we stabilise the concentrations... and stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we can see that the rise in sea level will continue to accelerate for several centuries because of the sea and ice caps long reaction time," he said.
"So it would be 2-400 years before we returned to the 20th century level of a 2 mm rise per year."
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform.
Source: www.businessgreen.com
Increasing carbon emissions have been a large talking point in the world and many world leaders have gathered together to try and reduce this. The threat that many people face is one of global warming and one that can have bad consequences if it’s not dealt with adequately. There are many ways individuals and businesses are cutting down on carbon emissions. In many ways being eco friendly grants businesses a certain status that is admired by many people. However besides this, governments have opted in for the use of carbon credits which can be used as incentives to reduce overall carbon output.
Carbon credits are part of an overall scheme but within this scheme there are two defining markets. The first one is the voluntary market; this is where businesses and individuals can purchase credits during individual or business activities. The credits in this market go straight to fund environmental projects such as the plantation of forests or research into new renewable energy sources.
The second type of market is the mandatory market which means companies are required by law to purchase carbon credits to offset their emissions. The standard procedure which takes place is called ‘cap and trade’ this is where companies have a certain amount of time and a limit of carbon emissions. If they’re under this limit they can sell off the carbon credits to polluting companies. However if they’re over they will have to purchase credits from greener companies to offset the fact they’re over polluting.
This has been shown to encourage businesses to be more competitive with their carbon emissions as there is a financial incentive. This financial incentive means that the greener your company is the more it will earn via the sale of carbon credits. This can lead to more growth and thus even greener technologies being developed.
Some ways businesses can reduce their carbon output are by using more energy efficient things or using the ones they have less. This can include using energy efficient bulbs, using recyclable paper, having solar panels on the building, turning the heating down and make improvements to the buildings insulation.
Due to the regulations in place and the desire for businesses to become more environmentally friendly, it has caused the carbon market to grow pretty rapidly. Since it’s grown so fast it’s provided many opportunities for investors to make a lot of money and increase their portfolio.
Companies like Carbon-Expert are a leading carbon broker in the market with many years worth of experience from their experts. Using a company like this will allow you to quickly get access to the rapidly growing carbon trading market and provide you with opportunities you wouldn’t normally have received.
Increasing carbon emissions have been a large talking point in the world and many world leaders have gathered together to try and reduce this. The threat that many people face is one of global warming and one that can have bad consequences if it’s not dealt with adequately. There are many ways individuals and businesses are cutting down on carbon emissions. In many ways being eco friendly grants businesses a certain status that is admired by many people. However besides this, governments have opted in for the use of carbon credits which can be used as incentives to reduce overall carbon output.
Almost 200 corporate jet owners, from oil company ExxonMobil to Starbucks and Iceland Foods, will be awarded free permits to compensate them for the new expense of Europe's carbon trading scheme for aircraft.
The UN's top climate change official has expressed optimism the global carbon market will continue to grow, despite fears uncertainty over the future of the Kyoto Protocol could result in the axing of carbon trading initiatives such as the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
RYANAIR COULD face a bill for carbon allowances for up to €16 million next year when airlines are due to comply with the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), figures released to The Irish Times have indicated.
Bloomberg have reported an increase in value and volume of carbon trading in the EU for the third quarter of 2011.
Dealing with the consequences of climate change has had a global impact. In 1990, 37 countries signed the Koyoto agreement. It was agreed that greenhouse gas emissions must be lowered by 5.2% of the amount produced in 1990. The target date set for this was 2012. Carbon credits have become a major part of the solution to the problem.
Ed Miliband told the Labour Party Conference last week that Britain’s future would be built on "low carbon and high tech" and proposed a "new bargain" in which climate change and the environment played an essential part.
A lawyer campaigning for the mass destruction of ecosystems to be officially recognised as an international crime has revealed that her campaign could be successfully completed within 18 months.
Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, announced recently that its United Kingdom operations have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard after taking action to measure, manage and reduce its carbon footprint by nearly 13 percent over three years. The collective amount of savings totals more than 4,400 tons of CO2, equivalent to the emissions from taking 1,128 UK cars off the road per year. The global operations of Bacardi reduced carbon emissions by nearly 18 percent during the same time period.
The target for industrialised countries to provide developing countries with climate finance of $100 billion a year by 2020 was set out at the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009.
If you are in a position to implement change where you work, or perhaps you own your own business, then there are many ways in which you can reduce your carbon emissions. You don’t have to be a carbon expert to work out how to do it either; in many cases it’s simply down to common sense.
The first delivery of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which promises to cut fuel consumption by 20 per cent, will take place this week, three years behind schedule.
It may not seem like the most obvious choice when it comes to making an investment, but the global carbon trading market is now worth around $144 billion. This figure is testament to just how powerful this market is, and you don’t have to be in any particular industry or be particularly rich to get involved.
South African miner Gold Fields' innovative methane capture project at its Beatrix mine in Welkom has been registered as a Clean Development Mechanism project with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), allowing the company to earn carbon credits.
by Alan Brown for The Guardian
It is one thing to see climate change science becoming increasingly accepted, or even to have reached a tipping point in public and political opinion; it is quite another to expect that we will somehow meet the ambitious goals necessary to see greenhouse gas concentrations peak at a reasonable level.
While almost all multinational companies are now addressing their own greenhouse gas emissions, two in every five are also taking steps to reduce the carbon output of their supply chain, according to a major new report released recently.
Pakistan is preparing to claim carbon credits on 34 hydropower projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC).
According to sources, the government has already forwarded the cases of 17 major projects to the UNFCCC, validating consultancy reports that these schemes will be helpful in significantly reducing greenhouse gases and hence can qualify for the carbon credits.
IN the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 137 million people flying from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
People often blame the aviation industry for the rise in carbon emissions.
But deputy under-secretary for environmental conservation at the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, Dr Gary Theseira, said the main increase in carbon dioxide emission came from natural causes, volcanic eruptions, decomposition of plant life and forest fires.
Carbon is emitted when fossil fuels are burnt and forests depleted so that there are fewer trees to absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
This is where carbon credit trading fits in. With the emissions trading approach, a value is assigned to a reduction or offset of greenhouse gases.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, each country is given a quota or allowance of gases and this is entered into its registry.
Under its clean development mechanism scheme, for example, when an oil palm plantation company in Malaysia cuts carbon emission by 10 tonnes, it can sell the unused credits to other developed countries. As of last month, 83 Malaysian companies had participated in the programme.
Theseira said: "There is so much potential for companies to do their bit for the environment and if more companies participated in the CDM programme, there would be a difference."
Another method of carbon credit trading is carbon offset, which is done on a voluntary basis by commercial and individual customers.
Although aviation makes up only three per cent of the total global emission of heat-trapping gases, the national airline is taking the issue seriously.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has a fly green programme for its passengers, which raised about RM150,000.
It channelled the proceeds to United Nations-sanctioned programmes to protect rainforests in Malaysia, said Capt Dr Ooi Teong Siew, general manager of corporate safety, security, health and environment. MAS also aims to have more environmentally-friendly and fuel-efficient aircraft in the region within the next five months.
"This target is achievable as aircraft manufacturers are constantly improving their engines as well as airframe designs to produce aircraft that emit fewer greenhouse gases than previous models." At the other end of the scale are the high levels of methane released by landfills.
Cypark Resources, a solid waste management company, said 17,000 tonnes of waste were generated in Malaysia daily.
Its group chief executive officer, Daud Ahmad, told the New Straits Times during a recent media visit to a landfill in Pajam, Nilai, that the acceptable amount of methane in the air was about five per cent.
"But the level of methane at this landfill is about 50 per cent, 10 times the recommended amount."
His company's leachate evaporation system uses methane, breaking it down in the process.
Daud said methane was 21 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.
That's why each time methane is broken down, the carbon credit "developer" (the operator of the landfill) gets 21 credits, compared with carbon dioxide, which gets one credit.
So proper management of landfills can reduce greenhouses gases in the country.
Source: http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/13gree/Article/
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform.
A Carbon Credit is a new financial commodity equivalent to one metric ton of Carbon Dioxide. Credits are awarded to countries, groups or businesses that have reduced their green house gases below their emission quota. Carbon credits can be traded in the international market at their current market price.
Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to reduce global warming by mitigating the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). There are two distinct types of Carbon credits: Carbon Offset Credits (COC's) and Carbon Reduction Credits (CRC's). Carbon Offset Credits consist of clean forms of energy production (wind, solar, hydro) and bio-fuels. Carbon Reduction Credits consists of the gathering and storage of Carbon from the atmosphere through reforestation, forestation, ocean and soil collection and storage efforts. Both methods are effective ways to reduce the Global Carbon Emissions.
There are many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. These carbon off-setters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has combined the credits from individual projects. The quality and value of the credits is based in part on the integrity and validation process of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project.
Source: www.sellingcarboncredits101.com
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform.
A new recycling plant for aircraft de-icer was inaugurated last week at Norway’s Oslo International Airport. In the coming 2011-12 winter, it is expected that the unit will reprocess 60-70% of the aircraft de-icer fluid (ADF) used in Oslo. The recycled product – mono propylene glycol (MPG) – will substitute an estimated 700 metric tonnes per year of virgin material in de-icing and heat transfer applications.
Vince Cable has hinted that the government is planning to step up support for the UK's low carbon economy, hailing the successful launch of the Green Investment Bank and promising that a green economic stimulus package remains a top priority for the Liberal Democrats.
Emission credits, also called carbon credits or offset credits, are part of an economic strategy for lowering greenhouse gas emissions through carbon trading. In carbon trading, a government or other law-making body puts a price on carbon emissions and requires industries to pay for their emissions, creating an economic incentive to cut back on pollution. To allow some flexibility, the government also puts a cap, or limit, on the amount of emissions that can be produced without paying, so that a company can either operate freely beneath the cap or pay to produce more carbon. If a company reduces emissions to below the cap, the company receives emission credits for each ton of carbon not produced. These credits may be sold or banked.
The problem of carbon emissions is on environmental agendas worldwide. When fossil fuels, such as coal, gas, or oil, are burned to create energy, they release carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, or a gas that traps heat within the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Climate change has wide ranging negative impacts on humans and the environment.
To stem this problem, the United States National Air Pollution Control Administration began working on a carbon emissions trading program in the 1960s, which it began implementing in the Clean Air Act of 1977. Emissions trading continued to spread, being more fully incorporated into U.S. environmental policy and added to environmental policies in the European Union. In addition to the nations that use emission trading and credits, coverage has also expanded. Coverage refers to the types of industries that must comply with emission trading programs’ standards and procedures.
Monitoring systems are also put in place to ensure that emission sources are correctly reporting emissions, and operating below the cap. When a company reduces emissions beneath the cap and receives emission credits for carbon not produced, it has several options on how to use the credits. The company may choose to bank its emission credits, storing them to be used later, at a time when the company may have to produce more greenhouse gases. The company can also sell the credits to another participating company that wants to produce more greenhouse gases than allowed by the cap.
This model of trading emission credits strives for a decrease in collective emissions, rather than individual reductions. Consider a hypothetical example in which there is an emissions limit of ten tons of carbon per source of emissions in a given industry, such as a textile industry. Textile factory A reduces its emissions to eight tons of carbon, earning two emission credits. To save money, textile factory B also reduces its emissions, but is still producing twelve tons of carbon, forcing it to buy two of factory A’s emission credits. While factory B is still operating above the cap, the industry as a whole has reduced its emissions to meet the cap.
Less commonly, a baseline and credit carbon trading program may also use economic incentive and emission credits as a means of reducing greenhouse gas output. Unlike cap and trade, baseline and credit programs do not charge sources for operating above a maximum limit on emissions. Instead, sources are rewarded with emission credits for reducing gas output to below a baseline level. The objective, however, remains the same: to reduce collective, rather than individual, emissions. Critics complain that trading emission credits redirects motives away from conservation, toward profit drive.
Source: www.wisegeek.com
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform.
Carbon trading is a market-based mechanism for helping mitigate the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A carbon trading system allows the development of a market through which carbon or carbon equivalents can be traded between participants, whether with countries or companies. Through carbon trading, individuals or entities can either buy or purchase carbon offsets. These offsets or credits go towards projects that either remove greenhouse gases from the environment, or support technology to reduce greenhouse gases.
Carbon credits are like certificates that represent a reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They are measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tons CO2e), and they may represent six primary categories of greenhouse gases. Carbon sequestration credits or offsets are calculated by the amount of carbon emissions that would have been emitted if a diesel or other traditional polluting electric generator was used to produce the same amount of electricity. The four types of carbon credits include EUAs (European Union Allowances), CERs (Certified Emission Reductions), ERUs (Emission Reduction Units), and VERs (Verified Emission Reductions).
In order to earn these credits, you should support projects such as those that prevent the generation of greenhouse gases or those that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Again, these credits can be bought from and sold to other businesses and individuals to offset the emissions they create. People can buy the credits to make up for the greenhouse gases they produce while driving to work, buying groceries, or watching television.
But aside from the credits that individuals or companies can voluntarily purchase, there are also carbon credits that they must purchase so they comply with legal requirements. Environmental legislature, stemming from the Kyoto Protocol has made sure of this.
Again, carbon trading is the process by which individuals or entities buy or purchase carbon offsets under standardized rules of trade.
Source: www.offsetmyco2.com
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform.
The Climate Change Committee will block the holes that let thieves take £5 billion from the carbon exchange.
A long-overdue clampdown on security in the carbon trading exchange has been promised by the European Commission’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) yesterday.
Connie Hedegaard, European commissioner for climate action, said: “The commission has identified a range of actions member states can already take in the short term to further improve security. For example, by regularly reviewing security plans, by reinforcing registry account policies and identity checks, by training registry users, etcetera.”
The commission meeting on February 23 was called following the forced closure of the Emissions Trading System for two weeks on January 19. The CCC outlined the actions to strengthen the integrity of carbon market trading following cyber-thefts from several registries over a period of more than 12 months.
Selected local exchanges had been closed a year earlier, following carbon permit thefts amounting to over £2.6 million, but trading continued on the European Emissions Exchange. This followed closely on a December 2009 report that claimed £4.5 billion had been taken out of the system.
The January 2011 closure was forced after the discovery of a further £6 million theft over a period of several months.
Securing the Exchange has been an expensive exercise but the CC believes that its recommended remedial actions will seal the numerous holes in the system but execution still seems to lack a tone of urgency.
Hedegaaard said, “For the medium and long term, we reinforce efforts to identify solutions in co-operation both with member states and through a regular dialogue with stakeholders.”
There is also the issue of VAT fraud to be tackled. Hedegaard suggested that better use of options in existing EU legislation would prevent this. Although enabling legislation at EU level has been in force since September 2009, not all member states have succeeded in implementing it.
Source: www.eweekeurope.co.uk
We have a commitment to the alternative green market sector, and are a leading international broker of carbon credits. In a market now worth approximately US$144 billion, the carbon market is set to eclipse all preceeding markets. Carbon is having a major impact on energy markets and prices. Its effects are impacting upon energy producers, utilities and increasing numbers of manufacturers.
Up to eight small hydropower schemes with a total capacity of 160MW in Chile are to benefit from an investment of $5M from the Multilateral Investment fund (MIF), part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group.
Greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland have fallen by 28.9 per cent since 1990, according to latest official statistics published recently.
A SIPP ( self-invested pension plan) allows the individual to consolidate their investments and pensions portfolio and “wrap them up” within a SIPP taking advantage of the TAX relief available.
Carbon Expert are among the leading brokers in emissions spot trading within the voluntary carbon credit market. Our aim is to help companies and individuals offset their CO2 emissions and help mitigate the harmful effects of climate change worldwide.
There are two components to the carbon market: “Cap and Trade” and “Offsets”.
There is ever increasing scientific evidence, for the effects of global warming. The effects can be observed by our planet’s changes in global temperatures, rising sea levels and more examples than ever before of extreme weather. This means that the greenhouse gasses on the planet are in need of stabilisation. The 21st Century has seen the rise of the carbon trading market, as a means of dealing with these important issues.
The 21st century has seen an abundant growth of investments in green and environmentally friendly technologies. Investments in the carbon market can be made for a variety of reasons. The most obvious candidates for investment in the carbon market are companies who exceed the permitted cap for greenhouse gas emissions.
In accordance with the Koyoto agreement, a company is required to measure the amount of greenhouse gas they produce. The total sum of greenhouse gas emmissions that a company produces, is known as the carbon footprint. In the 37 countries who signed the Koyoto agreement, governments impose a limit for greenhouse gas emissions. This limit is known as the emissions cap.
The buying and selling of carbon credits has become popular with investors, from all over the globe. Many people are finding that there can be huge financial benefits from investing in the carbon market. Carbon credits are now bought and sold in the same way as other commodities. This is much like a stock market trading model. The carbon market is part of the futures market.
At Carbon Expert, we enable our Clients to buy certified carbon credits. In the past, investors would need to first establish an account which was funded by a minimum deposit before any trading could begin trading. Carbon Expert is the portal to an over the counter way of trading in the carbon market which is faster and easier than ever before!
Mother Earth is getting a little bit of relief as more companies yield to pressure from environmentalists and activist shareholders to reduce their carbon footprints. But Gaia isn't the only one who's benefiting: Just ask the world's top 10 green companies, which have managed to save some serious greenbacks in the process of going green.
IBM (IBM), which tops the chart of Newsweek's 2010 global green rankings, saved more than $370 million from its energy conservation efforts during the 19-year span leading up to 2009, the company says. And IBM isn't alone. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which ranked No. 5 on Newsweek's green rankings chart, managed to save £3.8 million (nearly $6.3 million) in energy costs during a three-year period by reducing its carbon footprint by 4%, according to an Energy Efficiency Newsreport.
And even during these dour economic times, companies are apparently willing to increase their investments in green efforts, according to an MIT Sloan and Boston Consulting Group study on global sustainability and innovation.The report found 25% of survey respondents had expressed a willingness to increase their sustainability commitment in 2009, but that figure rose to 59% in 2010. And over the next year, 70% of survey respondents said they expected to increase their investments and sustainability management efforts.
Source: www.dailyfinance.com
Carbon Expert enable our clients to purchase verified carbon credits and participate in an established globally recognised carbon trading platform. Find out more at: twitter.com
NEW solar panels are to be installed on North Tyneside council buildings and homes to help save money.
ECO-CONSCIOUS airport bosses are "winging their way to green success" after smashing their goal of reducing the energy they use.
The UK's legal sector has launched a major new climate change initiative that should see almost a third of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales announce public carbon emissions targets.
Carbon offsetting is arguably one of the most effective means of curbing unavoidable emissions while also accelerating the roll out of clean technologies in developing countries.
The EU is reportedly working on a compromise package of proposals designed to end the deadlock between developing and industrialised nations over the future of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Clean Development Mechanism ( CDM ) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment (called Annex I countries) to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has to establish that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept well known as "additionality".
The Environment Agency has cut its CO2 emissions by almost a fifth since 2006/07 as part of a wider reduction of its environmental footprint that has equated to a cost reduction of more than £6 million a year.
Ford has cut the ribbon on a third wind turbine at its Dagenham Diesel Centre in Essex allowing the expanded factory to get all its electricity from renewable sources.
In the Home or Office
The most effective ways to reduce emissions are to:
Simple steps you can take are to:
Extra steps you can take are to:
On the Move
When out and about, emissions can be reduced by;
Out shopping
Remember the three R's. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Carbon Expert are among the leading brokers in emissions spot trading within the voluntary carbon credit market. Follow us on Twitter.
The author of a recent article is thinking of switching his commute “from four wheels to two” but he’s concerned about the environmental impact of bicycling: specifically, “about all the energy it takes to manufacture and ship a new bicycle.”
Global carbon markets saw 3.6 billion tonnes (Gt) CO2e exchanged over the six first months of 2011, valued at some €50 billion (US$71bn), compared to €48bn in H1 2010. In terms of volume this is down 5% on the same period last year, principally due to lower EU Allowance (EUA) volumes. In terms of value, however, it represents a 3% increase compared to the same period last year, according to analysis by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, a leading provider of market intelligence, news, analysis, forecasting and advisory services for the energy and environmental markets.
Scientists have shown in the last two decades that Climate Change (Global Warming) is very real and caused by carbon emissions. There is scientific backing that proves that we, humans, have contributed to this phenomenon. In January 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), stated “An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system… There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities,” thus supporting the claim. It has led scientists to believe that there is over 90% certainty that human activities are the cause for global warming by emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Some of the phenomena we have seen are the continual rise of the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, the greater frequency of hurricanes and flooding due to the melting of polar ice caps. We may be seeing just the beginning of the catastrophic damage caused by global warming. Scientists around the world have urged politicians, industries alike to take proper action in diverting this worldwide disaster.
Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), and secondarily the clearing of land, have increased the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane, and other heat-trapping (“greenhouse”) gases (carbon, methane) in the atmosphere which lead to the greenhouse effect. It starts with the 50% of sunlight that is absorbed by the Earth’s surface which radiates energy in the infrared region. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb most of the infrared radiation emitted by the surface and pass the absorbed heat to other atmospheric gases through molecular collisions. The greenhouse gases then radiate in the infrared range downward towards the earth. With increasing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a greater warming effect caused by greenhouse gas effect leads to global warming.
Much of the carbon dioxide released is due to the burning of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels contain carbon from plants and animals that were fossilized over millions of years ago. When the fossil fuels are burned, they interact with the oxygen in the air to release carbon dioxide gas. When the carbon dioxide is released in the atmosphere it emits radiation in the thermal infrared region leading to overall rise in temperatures.
Carbon dioxide’s molecular structure allows for absorption and emission of heat. It consists of one carbon atom with an oxygen atom bonded to each side. When its atoms are bonded tightly together, the carbon dioxide molecule can absorb infrared radiation released by the Earth’s surface. The molecule starts to vibrate and eventually, the vibrating molecule will emit the radiation again, and it will likely be absorbed by yet another greenhouse gas molecule. This absorption-emission-absorption cycle serves to keep the heat near the surface, effectively insulating the surface from the cold of space.
Water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and a few other gases are also greenhouse gases and contribute to the warming of the earth’s atmosphere. They all are molecules composed of more than two component atoms, bound loosely enough together to be able to vibrate with the absorption of heat. The major components of the atmosphere that do not contribute to the greenhouse effect are gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, i.e two-atom molecules that are too tightly bound together to vibrate and thus they do not absorb any heat.
Some of the statistics taken from scientists who have measured the environmental impact of global warming in the past two centuries share some disturbing facts. Measurements from Antarctic ice cores show that before industrial emissions started atmospheric CO2 levels were about 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv), and stayed between 260 and 280 during the preceding ten thousand years.
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have gone up by approximately 35 percent since the 1900s, rising from 280 parts per million by volume to 387 parts per million in 2009. Carbon dioxide emissions are growing at an alarming rate. Recent data shows that in the 1960s, the average annual increase was only 37% of what it was in 2000 through 2007. The first 50 ppmv increase took place in about 200 years, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to around 1973; however the next 50 ppmv increase took place in about 33 years, from 1973 to 2006. These numbers predict that as the world continues to populate and thrive and there is greater demand for energy, without some form of regulation of carbon emissions.
Source: www.infoaboutcarbontrading.com
We are among the leading brokers in emissions spot trading within the voluntary carbon credit market. Follow us on Twitter
Carbon credits represent a reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Projects that prevent the generation of greenhouse gases or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere earn these credits, which can in turn then be "sold" to other businesses and individuals to "offset" the emissions they generate. So where do these carbon credits come from?
EU Allowances, or EUAs, are the emission allowances given to participants in the EU ETS and are traded in a secondary market on the European Climate Exchange (ECX). One EUA gives the holder the right to emit one tonne of CO2. Approximately 2.3bn EUAs have been issued annually to industries covered under the EU ETS.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) is the largest multi-national, emissions trading scheme in the world, and is a major pillar of EU climate policy.
The Clean Development Mechanism is when a project undertaken in a developing country generates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to the host country’s sustainable development, and accrues emission reduction credits.
The emergence of a domestic carbon trading scheme could enable Indigenous groups to participate more fully in reducing Australia’s emissions if Indigenous participation is followed through, says the North Australian Indigenous Land & Sea Management Alliance.
The North Australian Indigenous Land & Sea Management Alliance facilitates large scale initiatives across Northern Australia's wet/dry tropics and is committed to finding practical solutions to support people to manage their lands into the future. NAILSMA has led research into the first offset methodology released under the Carbon Farming Initiative.
Additionally Indigenous people across northern Australia have recovered large tracts of land and retain Native Title interests over approximately 80 per cent of the region.
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Source: NewsMaker
Biologic carbon sequestration refers to the assimilation and storage of atmospheric carbon in vegetation, soils, woody products, and aquatic environments. Fluxes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) in ecosystems are a function of natural ecosystem processes and anthropogenic activities. Section 712 of the EISA legislation mandates the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to develop a methodology and conduct an assessment of carbon storage, carbon sequestration, and fluxes of three principal GHG for the Nation's ecosystems. The three principal GHG are CO2, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). A biological carbon sequestration assessment methodology has been developed to fulfill the first part of the EISA requirements. The national assessment for biological carbon sequestration will be conducted in the course of the next 3-4 years beginning in fiscal year 2011.
The USGS has developed a methodology to assess the nation's resources for geologic carbon sequestration in oil and gas reservoirs and saline formations. The methodology estimates storage resource potential that can be applied uniformly to geologic formations across the United States. The assessed resource is the volume of pore space into which CO2 can be injected and retained for tens of thousands of years. The methodology builds geologic models of the areas to be assessed and then uses probabilistic methods to account for the uncertainties associated with natural variations in geologic storage formations. Using the new methodology, the USGS has started the national assessment of geologic carbon sequestration storage potential. In the course of this assessment, USGS will work with a number of organizations to develop the geologic models needed for the assessment. These organizations include the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, and State Geological Surveys and Universities.
Source: USGS
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"Climate" is a very general term that has a variety of closely related meanings. Usually, "climate" refers to the average, or typical, weather conditions observed over a long period of time for a given area.
The climate of the Earth is not static, and has changed many times in response to a variety of natural causes.
The Earth has warmed by 0.74°C over the last hundred years. Around 0.4°C of this warming has occurred since the 1970s.
The recent Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) leaves us in no doubt that human activity is the primary driver of the observed changes in climate.
According to AR4, mean global temperatures are likely to rise between 1.1 and 6.4°C (with a best estimate of 1.8 to 4°C) above 1990 levels by the end of this century, depending on our emissions. This will result in a further rise in global sea levels of between 20 and 60cm by the end of this century, continued melting of ice caps, glaciers and sea ice, changes in rainfall patterns and intensification of tropical cyclones.
It’s not all doom and gloom - there is still time to reduce the impact we are having on climate change if we act now. If we don’t – it will be our children and grandchildren who will have to live with mistakes of their fathers with the unpredictable weather variations that we are already experiencing becoming more severe over time.
During the last 40 years, the UK's winters have grown warmer, with heavier bursts of rain. Summers in the UK are growing drier and hotter – The effects of climate change can be seen in our everyday lives. Stark warnings are ever present- water shortages in the UK, natural disaster further afield.
Interesting fact: Until 2001 - The Thames barrier was raised on average three times a year - NOW - The Thames barrier is now raised on average 13 times a year.
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Invest in carbon credits and help safeguard the environment for future generations by purchasing carbon credits on an established globally recognised carbon trading platform with Carbon-Expert.
This website provides an outline of the carbon trading market and the services that we “Carbon-Expert” offer.
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